Canada

O CHILD of Nations, giant-limbed,
Who stand'st among the nations now
Unheeded, unadorned, unhymned,
With unanointed brow,

How long the ignoble sloth, how long
The trust in greatness not thine own ?
Surely the lion's brood is strong
To front the world alone !

How long the indolence, ere thou dare
Achieve thy destiny, seize thy fame,
Ere our proud eyes behold thee bear
A nation's franchise, nation's name ?

The Saxon force, the Celtic fire,
These are thy manhood's heritage !
Why rest with babes and slaves ? Seek higher
The place of race and age.

I see to every wind unfurled
The flag that bears the Maple- Wreath ;
Thy swift keels furrow round the world
Its blood-red folds beneath ;

Thy swift keels cleave the furthest seas ;
Thy white sails swell with alien gales ;
To stream on each remotest breeze
The black smoke of thy pipes exhales.

Falterer, let thy past convince
Thy future, — all the growth, the gain,
The fame since Cartier knew thee, since
Thy shores beheld Champlain !

Montcalm and Wolfe ! Wolfe and Montcalm
Quebec, thy storied citadel
Attest in burning song and psalm
How here thy heroes fell !

Thou that bor'st the battle's brunt
At Queenston, and at Lundy's Lane,
On whose scant ranks but iron front
The battle broke in vain !

Whose was the danger, whose the day,
From whose triumphant throats the cheers,
At Chrysler's Farm, at Chateauguay,
Storming like clarion-bursts our ears ?

On soft Pacific slopes, — beside
Strange floods that northward rave and fall,-
Where chafes Acadia's chainless tide —
Thy sons await thy call.

They wait ; but some in exile, some
With strangers housed, in stranger lands ;
And some Canadian lips are dumb
Beneath Egyptian sands.

O mystic Nile ! Thy secret yields
Before us ; thy most ancient dreams
Are mixed with far Canadian fields
And murmur of Canadian streams.

But thou, my Country, dream not thou !
Wake, and behold how night is done,
How on thy breast, and o'er thy brow,
Bursts the uprising sun !